As soon as i saw the title I knew it had to be one of Mr Mcgregor's projects.<P><B>Internet to link young dancers in North and South simultaneously</B> <BR>By Tomos Livingstone for The Western Mail<BR> <BR> <BR>AN innovative project will see a simultaneous dance performance in two theatres 300 miles apart.<P>Sixty National Youth Dance Wales members will perform Game of Halves at the Sherman Theatre in Cardiff and at Clwyd Theatr Cymru, Mold, on August 1 and 2.<P>The venues will be linked by video, with images of dancers on one stage projected behind the real dancers on the other.<P>It is the second time choreographer Wayne McGregor, who has worked on cyberspace projects in the past, has used the technology to choreograph in a fourth dimension - and the first time he has worked with youth dancers on such a project.<P><A HREF="http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0300business/0100news/page.cfm?objectid=11944445&method=full&siteid=50082" TARGET=_blank><B>click for more</B></A>

Announces performance figures for first year as Resident Company of Sadler’s Wells

Random Dance today announced details of performances, audiences and education work for its first year as the Resident Company of Sadler’s Wells.

From July 2001 to June 2002: · Random Dance performed 73 tour dates. · Random Dance performed 43 times in the UK, at 21 different venues. · Random Dance performed 30 international tour dates in 10 different countries: Colombia, Sweden, France, Germany, the USA, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakstan and Krygyzstan. · Random Dance created and performed six new works – Nemesis, Phase Space and four site-specific community pieces: Castlescape (East London), Hive (National Botanical Gardens of Wales), Byte(s) (Surrey) and Bodyscript (Sadler’s Wells). · Random Dance performed 10 different works in total including Aeon, The Trilogy, digit01 and Duo:logue. · Random Dance’s work was seen by an estimated audience of 25,920 people. · Around 3,000 people participated in Random Dance site-specific projects or attended workshops. · Random Dance was nominated for two international awards: Wayne McGregor was nominated by Angelin Preljocaj for the Benoise De La Dance award, and a BBC documentary on the company was nominated for the 11th Grand Prix International Video Danse.

“Random has had an exceptional first year at Sadler’s Wells,” said Wayne McGregor, Artistic Director of Random Dance. “We have found our feet, and laid down strong foundations from which we can’t wait to realise our ambitious artistic vision for the future.”

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RANDOM DANCE Becomes first British dance company to tour the Caucasus region and Central Asia

Random Dance, supported by The British Council, became the first British dance company to tour the Caucasus region and Central Asia. The Resident Company of Sadler’s Wells played to around 7,000 people at sell-out venues across five countries in June 2002 – Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakstan and Krygyzstan.

“The performances were sensational and inspiring for us all,” said Margaret Jack, Director of the British Council in Azerbaijan, “and the city is still buzzing with talk of the event.”

What a pity the choreographer Wayne McGregor didn't take a more teacherly approach to his latest show, Alpha, possibly the first ever to pitch abstract contemporary dance to under-12s. On the face of it, McGregor is well placed to access kids' imaginations, not least in his obsession with computer imagery and robotics. But producing the hardware is one thing, and using it to usher children into the adult viewing experience quite another. In Alpha, "an enchanting tale for children" performed by McGregor's company Random, I fear he drastically over-estimates his audience. For one thing, kids love stories, and this isn't one. It does contain, briefly, a folk tale related by a computer-synthesised voice, but frustratingly it comes out as gobbledegook. Can eight to 11-year-olds relate to abstract modern dance without the help of a plot? From the glum response of my own child, I'd guess not.

In celebration of their unique position as a technical and aesthetic tour de force, company founder and artistic director Wayne McGregor has commissioned 2 world-ranking choreographers to join him in a radical triple bill of brand new work.

Over the last 10 years Random Dance, in Residence at Sadler¹s Wells, has established itself as a powerhouse force in British dance. Renowned for its visionary approach to developing innovative work, Random has redrawn the boundaries for new choreography and thrust the exploration of dancers¹ physical capability to an extreme and refreshing frontier.

"Dangerous, compelling, fast and extreme. Utterly splendid." Time Out, London

Award winning Portuguese choreographer Rui Horta is a dance maverick. Best known in Britain for his legendary work for the Dance Company S.O.A P, he has produced some of the most articulate, visually stylish and inspiring dance of the last decade. He returns to the UK after 6 years.

"Watching Rui Horta¹s work is like walking through someone else¹s dream ­ disjointed, provocative, disturbing and beautiful." Washington City Paper

Born in Madras, now living in London, Shobana Jeyasingh has directed the feted Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company since 1988. Establishing herself as one of the leading exponents of contemporary Indian Dance, Jeyasingh has uncompromisingly broken every rule in dance composition generating powerful, enigmatic work that continues to confound expectations.

"ŠJeyasingh has left tradition behind, forging a dazzling and totally distinct movement language that obeys no one¹s rules but her own . . ." The Times

Wayne McGregor courts complexity in his work with dance that is fast, bizarre, intricate, and physically brutal. Constantly evolving his practise, McGregor creates work that suggests alternative realities, where sensory landscapes collide with breathtakingly strange movement to build an alien universe.

"His alien visions and sci-fi landscapes are what everyone wants to see" The Times

"I am very proud to say that Random has had a very long association with The Place over the last ten years. We premiered our first work there ŒXeno 1:2:3:¹ in Jan 1993 as part of the now legendary Resolution! season, I went on to become choreographer-in-residence in 1994 and subsequently Random became one of their resident companies for a further 5 years. Throughout Random¹s history The Place has played a major role in supporting, commissioning and genuinely nurturing our work. It is with great pleasure therefore that we are returning to The Place for this 3 week, uniquely designed, Random residency." Wayne McGregor

Polar Sequences is co-commissioned by The Place and PACT Zollverein. Rui Horta's work has been developed with the support from The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and Visiting Arts.

Random Dance's "Polar Sequences" gives the Company a chance to work for the first time with choreogaphers other than the Artistic Director Wayne McGregor. All those involved found it a fulfilling experience with sections created by Shobana Jeyasingh, Rui Horta and Wayne McGregor himself. The rich and varied choreography is superbly performed by the dancers, most of whom are new to the Company this year. One of the newcomers, Léo Lérus brings a vigorous and fresh approach to the material and from those who have stayed on, Claire Cunningham and Laila Diallo dance with a grace and precision that few can match.

Strongly recommended to all those who enjoy modern dance or have been intrigued by Wayne MacGregor’s forays into the ballet world. “Polar Sequences” runs until 27th September and at present there are tickets available on all nights from £10 and £7 for Concessions = full-time students (with valid NUS/ISIC card), jobseekers, retired senior citizens, people with disabilities

Random's latest trilogy of new work is a disconcerting mix, ambitiously conceived, superbly danced but with an oddly transitional feel. Polar Sequences represents the first time in the company's 11-year history in which outside choreographers (Shobana Jeyasingh and Rui Horta) have been invited in to work with the dancers. But if that wasn't sufficiently new terrain, director Wayne McGregor's own contribution feels like a piece torn between its future options

Wayne McGregor has marked its tenth anniversary by introducing work from choreographers other than himself for the first time.

The result is a dilution of the company's cyborg image. It's still there in McGregor's new piece, which continues his vein of super-supple dance with its own peculiar logic. In contrast, Shobana Jeyasingh's splintered sequences appear arbitrary, set to yet another nerve-racking racket. Though she mixes martial arts, Indian gestures and acrobatic partnering, the outcome still looks like generic McGregor. She is trying to be edgy instead of providing a contrasting style for the company.

IT’S billed as a programme of new work by three “decidedly different” choreographers, but what’s remarkable about Random’s Polar Sequences is how similar all three have turned out to be. You would never have guessed it. Shobana Jeyasingh is one of our most original and inspiring artists, who likes to win her audience with thoughtful dance; the Portuguese Rui Horta likes to provoke his with unexpected humour. Wayne McGregor, with his company Random, loves to push dancers to the limits of physical possibility. They don’t have all that much in common. Yet Polar Sequences, which brings together their three premieres under the Random banner, has a uniformly disjointed air.

Not many choreographers use their companies to show pieces by others. Wayne McGregor, celebrating 10 years of his Random Dance company, has invited two others to share a triple bill at The Place. There is an overall title, Polar Sequences, but the individual pieces are unnamed.

The company looks sleek and strong throughout. McGregor goes in for extreme positions, splits and high-kicked legs, but he likes a full-bodied way of moving. His dancers take everything he throws at them and never look strained.

Strangely beautiful creatures twisting and twirling through a world almost unrecognisable as our own filled the stage at Stratford Circus last month in Alpha, an enchanting tale created for children by Random Dance, resident company of Sadler’s Wells, London.

The Alpha project began in July. It was designed to get children who would not normally have the opportunity, involved in dance and with the help of the latest web casting technology this is exactly what it has done.

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